CT - Pall lifts along with AIDS travel ban

From my archive of press clippings:

Chicago Tribune

Pall lifts along with AIDS travel ban


Patients, families cheer lifting of U.S. AIDS travel ban

By Bonnie Miller Rubin Tribune reporter

December 1, 2009

Senora Desiree cries when she talks about her only son, who is HIV-positive. The fact that the 18-year-old has been barred from visiting Chicago only heaps humiliation on top of her pain.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):"

"President Barack Obama recently announced that the 22-year-old ban on entry into the United States for anyone infected with HIV/AIDS will be lifted in January, making life a bit easier for mothers such as Desiree, who did not want her full name used because of the stigma of having an HIV-positive relative."

"(T)he Immigration and Nationality Act denied visas to anyone with a "communicable disease of public health significance," adding HIV to the list, alongside other travel-restricted conditions, such as tuberculosis and leprosy."

"The ban meant those with HIV and AIDS were not allowed to enter the U.S. and noncitizens already here could not stay, dividing families and upending lives.

While Immigration officials have granted special waivers to some people with the illness, the process is complicated and expensive, attorneys say.

Only about a dozen countries -- including Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Libya -- have similar HIV travel restrictions."

"The CDC, however, was required by statute to uphold the ban, said Cetron, director of the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine."

&

"The process started during the Clinton administration, but picked up momentum under George W. Bush, eager to build a legacy around his HIV work. As a candidate, Obama pledged to keep up the fight, culminating in the White House ceremony a month ago when it was announced the ban would end Jan. 4."

_____
brubin@tribune.com

JG - Pandemic

Jamaica Gleaner

Pandemic


Published: Sunday May 17, 2009


Martin Henry, Contributor


It is only a matter of time. There is no if or but, but only when and what, that a pandemic will hit the globe. We have managed in recent times to stave off avian influenza from scaling up into a pandemic. AIDS is a behaviour and lifestyle infection, which, despite its pandemic spread, can be controlled by a change of behaviour. Not so infections spread from person to person by casual social contact.

Read the whole article here.